To Mayor Todd Gloria,

The people of San Diego write to call on you to serve their interests instead of beneficiaries of inhumane war and violators of sovereignty. We are concerned with the hosting of the Rim of the Pacific Exercises (RIMPAC) by the 3rd Navy Fleet, based in Point Loma, San Diego. We are concerned with millions of federal funds being concentrated into this destructive war game in Hawaii, while the city where it is launched from suffers from budget cuts to services, rising prices of goods and housing. Your own personal cooperation with foreign militaries, who participate in the RIMPAC, also calls into question where your services and loyalty truly lie as San Diego city’s mayor.

Based on these concerns, we urge you to meet our community demands:
1. Represent the concerns of residents and speak to Vice Admiral Marc Miguez of the U.S. 3rd Fleet in San Diego to relay the demand to end the destructive Rim of the Pacific Exercises!
2. Show your interest in our demands to end RIMPAC by:
• Attending the San Diego End RIMPAC Coalition rally on August 8th at 11AM at Waterfront Park
• Joining veterans, mothers, faith leaders, and others in signing the community letter that calls to End RIMPAC on www.EndRIMPAC.org
3. Prioritize social services for San Diego residents over military and surveillance interests
• Increase funding for services for veterans
• Cut Flock surveillance programs, which do not serve the San Diego community
• Stop funding the police and their collusion with ICE and DHS
4. As a result of your direct cooperation and deal-making with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Romeo Brawner Jr. in February 2025, we demand that you:
• Denounce the killing of 19 people by the AFP in Negros Occidental on April 19th 2026, one of whom was San Diego city-born and raised Lyle Prijoles; denounce former Chief of Staff Brawner Jr. for his approval of this massacre
• Endorse and sign the San Diego community's citywide proclamation for Lyle Prijoles Day
• Join the call for an independent investigation into the Negros 19 massacre and endorse the Philippine Human Rights Act
5. End your meetings with foreign militaries and cooperation with human rights violators

The Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) is the world's largest maritime warfare exercise hosted by the U.S. Pacific Fleet, under the leadership of the 3rd Fleet headquartered in Point Loma. These exercises have devastating environmental impacts with land, sea, and air pollution that harms local and indigenous populations both directly through different health impacts and indirectly by destroying the fisheries and habitats that their livelihoods depend on. Economically, millions of our U.S. tax dollars are poured into these wasteful exercises instead of basic social services, such as housing, healthcare, and education. At a time when we are all struggling to pay for basic necessities and fuel prices are skyrocketing, these warships are burning gas by the barrel just to join in exercises that do not serve San Diego nor Hawaii communities.

The people of San Diego, home of the 3rd Fleet, have already shown our opposition to RIMPAC, notably calling for its cancellation in previous years. This year and moving forward, the people call for its end - an end to RIMPAC, an end to taxpayer dollars funding militarism, and an end to the ramping up of war at the detriment of our communities here and abroad. We demand you do your part in ending these exercises by using your position to relay these demands to Admiral Marc Miguez and join the overall call to end RIMPAC!

Our demands are being made as the budget crisis in San Diego has the city facing hundreds of layoffs among city employees, cuts in library, recreation, and creative arts funding, and reductions to services for our overwhelming homelessness and housing crisis. We recognize the implementation of measures like the infamous paid parking at Balboa Park as failed attempts to make San Diegans shoulder the blame for the city's deficits, when we know where the real problems are in the city's spending. Nationwide, the Veterans Affairs budget is being cut and is impacting veterans in San Diego, which is home to at least 230,000 veterans. We demand that you address the needs of veterans through funding social services in San Diego. We do not want funding to go toward more destructive military spending if those who have already dedicated their lives to the military cannot even receive services. Uplift our demands for a city and federal budget that serves our interests as San Diego residents, not a budget that funds increased policing, Flock surveillance, and the criminalization of our community that is already struggling to make ends meet. Uplift our calls for a budget that does not go toward training militaries that violate international humanitarian law and sovereignty.

The people of San Diego call on you specifically, as we are aware that in February 2025, you spent $8,000 of San Diego taxpayer money on a trip to the Philippines. You spent your time brokering foreign investments to boost San Diego's military ties with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), notably joining San Diego-based TrellisWare to celebrate their multimillion-dollar sale of communications equipment to the AFP. You personally met with the Chief of Staff of the AFP at the time, Romeo Brawner Jr.

A year later, the AFP under the command of Romeo Brawner killed one of your constituents, a human rights activist born and raised in San Diego, Lyle Prijoles. He was one of 19 massacred in Toboso, Negros on April 19th, 2026. Brawner celebrated the massacre and claimed that those involved in the killings were all armed combatants, dismissing public concern for the students, journalists, and activists killed. Local U.S. representatives, in an effort led by Washington State congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and including California Senator Adam Schiff, have recognized this incident as a serious violation of human rights and are now calling for an independent investigation into this massacre.

San Diego community and friends of Lyle Prijoles are devastated by this unjust killing. You, our local mayor, shook hands and collaborated with the organization responsible for his murder. Mayor Gloria, publicly denounce the AFP for this crime and join in the calls for an independent investigation into the massacre in Negros Occidental. Hold the Philippine government accountable for all of its human rights abuses by endorsing the Philippine Human Rights Act!

Mayor Gloria, end your support for foreign militaries and human rights violations, join the calls for an independent investigation into the massacre in Negros Occidental, provide for the needs of the people of San Diego, and do your part in ending RIMPAC!